SCSDB-Monday, March 21, 2011-First Day in the Classroom

Today is the day. We got our nametags and were placed into the classrooms that we will be in for the rest of the week. Because I do not know very much sign language, I figured it would be best for both the deaf students and for me if I worked with the blind students. My volunteer experience has generally been with elementary school students, so I decided that I would work with the elementary blind. The school administrators placed me in Mr. Neff’s kindergarten and first grade class.

Mr. Neff only has five students. They are Elijah, Cory, Yanni, Landon, and Destinee. Out of all five of them, only one student is completely blind, three students are seriously vision-impaired, and according to Mr. Neff, one of the students has better eyesight than he did. I need to remember to ask him why that student is in a school for the blind if he could see so well.

Miss Cindy—that is what they called me. Immediately, Yanni asks me to play dolls with her. Then I am asked to be the referee for a game of checkers. Before that game is over, I go to play with tops with Landon. Besides that fact that I sometimes needed to place the toys in their hands, the students seemed completely “normal” in the sense that they acted just like other kids. It really was not until we were getting ready for lunch, while they were grabbing their canes, did it hit me.

In my opinion, if I were to lose any one of the senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell, I would choose to lose anything but my ability to see. As silly as it sounds, I cannot imagine not being able to see colors, to drive, or even to be able to see the change of seasons. Since we arrived in Spartanburg, I have not been able to stop talking about how I love all the foliage and blooming flowers. When I picked out a flower for Yanni to smell today, she did not even believe that I was holding out a flower to her because she could not see it.

It sometimes is really hard for me to understand why children need to struggle more than others for seemingly no apparent reason. Why did these kids have to be born blind or vision-impaired? What have they done in their five to six years of life to already be faced with such a problem?
Seeing the students walk down the hallways with their canes really brought this thought back to me, but I forced myself to realize that the school is there to help them. They really are in the right place.

There were many moments today that tugged at my heart. From the feeling of pity for the children as they used their canes to the feeling of pride and amazement of watching a school play that they had practiced over a month for, there were many moments that tugged at my heart today. I cannot wait to see what tomorrow brings.